When it comes to the test, no pressure leads to better performance

The Illinois Standards Achievement Tests are quickly approaching. But if you’re
looking for students biting their nails and banging their heads, you won’t find
them in Chicago contract schools.

Instead, it’s just an average school day. Contract school educators say they
avoid teaching to the test and prefer a holistic curriculum that gives students
both test-taking and life skills.

“The idea of teaching to the test has never been in our building,” said Dr.
Beverly Echols, principal of Hope Institute, a contract school on the Northwest
Side. “We want them to be able to be lifelong learners.”

The state tests schools’ achievement to determine whether a school can continue
to operate or be placed on probation. As a result, the ISATs can easily be seen
as D-Day, particularly for contract schools that operate in a trial period of
sorts compared to their charter counterparts.

But administrators say they don’t agree with teaching to the test just to
produce high scores.

“We just think it’s wrong,” said Virginia Kobilca, vice president of curriculum
and instruction for American Quality Schools. The organization oversees five
charter schools in Chicago as well as Plato Learning Academy Elementary School,
a contract school on the Northwest Side.

“We don’t want to teach specifically to a test. We certainly teach all the
standards but we want children to be able to apply it later on in life.”

Educators said they rely heavily on data provided by organizations such as the
Northwest Evaluation Association, a non-profit organization that uses
statistics to improve instruction and monitor student development.

“The data not only drives instruction,” said Monique Whittington, principal of
Kwame Nkrumah Academy, “it gives us a clear picture of where we are.”

Whittington’s school was originally a contract school but was approved by the
school board to receive charter school status last month. This is the first
year the new third-grade class will be taking the ISATs, and she said she does
not want students to crack under pressure.

“We don’t want them to feel like this one test is the determination of who they
are and what they can do,” she said. “We want to make sure that our children
are comfortable and that we don’t have that testing anxiety.”

Echols said she feels contract and charter schools have an advantage over
traditional schools that are limited to certain hours and curriculums. Students
at Hope have early dismissal on Tuesdays so that teachers can have professional
development, she said. This gives teachers an opportunity to assess their
strengths and weaknesses.

Experts say students function better in an environment that focuses on holistic
development and avoids pressure.

“Children’s socio-emotional development requires social interaction with
people,” said Catherine Davis, associate professor of pediatrics at Georgia
Health Sciences University. “So turning them into little academic robots isn’t
going to be particularly helpful.”

Administrators seemed to agree that their main concern is monitoring the
progress their students show rather than compelling them to focus on scores.